LANGUAGE IN INDIA

A REVIEW OF IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL SCHOOLS - LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION AND GLOCALIZATION

Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.

A GREAT BOOK, AND A TIMELY CONTRIBUTION

This book, Imagining Multilingual Schools – Languages in Education and Golocalization, is edited by Ofelia Garcia, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Maria E. Torres- Guzman and published by Linguistic Diversity and Language Rights Multilingual Matters Ltd., Clevedon, 2006. The book is dedicated to “all the world’s teachers of multilingual children.” The Editors present this book in five parts.

WEAVING SPACES

Part 1 is the Introduction. It is entitled “Weaving Spaces and (De) constructing Ways for Multilingual Schools: The Actual and the Imagined.” The editors, Ofelia Garcia, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Maria E. Torres-Guzman have written this part. In the age of globalization, where democratic values is the buzz word for socio-economic development, only 13% of the world’s children are lucky to receive primary education in their native language. (page 4) The concerns of this book revolve around mother tongues and a future instead of a situation to choose from the two.

Multilingual education “is education where more than two languages are used as languages of instruction in subjects other than the languages themselves.” The ‘multilingual school’ ‘exert educational effort’ to build further on the diversity of languages and literacy practices that children bring to school.” To imagine multilingual schools is complex, so real in some countries, and unmanageable in some.

IDENTITY TEXTS

Jim Cummins’ essay entitled “Identity Texts: The imaginative construction of self through multiliteracies pedagogy” focuses on three current trends that influence the education system.

1. The increasing mobility of peoples resulting in linguistic and cultural diversity in urban education
2. The growing perception that English is the avenue to social and economic progress and therefore the demand for English medium education.
3. The changing face of the Information Age Economy

The questions therefore are:

1. How can educators ensure that students from linguistically diverse backgrounds have rights to maintain their home language with the support of the school system?
2. “How can educators communicate to parents and policy-makers that research support a both/and rather than either/or, orientation to the development of home language and English literacy?
3. “Can new technologies also be harnessed as tools for development of critical literacy that would enable students to gain access to alternatives and resist dominant discourses?”

One approach to success in supporting maintenance of linguistic diversity in the classroom is through the Multi-literacies project which accesses children’s’ knowledge of their home language to evolve identity texts.

INDIAN PANORAMA AND PREDICAMENT

Ajit K. Mohanty writes on “Multilingualism of the Un-equals and Predicaments of Education in India: Mother Tongue or Other Tongue?”

The author presents seven features to understand the character of Indian multilingualism. They are

1. Bilingualism at the grass-root level;
2. Maintenance norms;
3. Complementarities of languages;
4. Multiplicity of linguistic identities;
5. Bilingualism as a strategy for mother tongue maintenance;
6. Multilingualism as a positive force;
7. Early socialization for multilingual functioning
8. Mohanty appeals for a ‘comprehensive language-in-education policy for empowerment of tribal and minority languages along with the reappraisal of the role of English in Indian Society’. The most striking plea is, “The question is not whether to use the mother tongue OR the other tongue. It is not about whether to use Hindi OR English. Multilingual education in India is about the mother tongue AND the other tongues as it develops multilingualism for all in Indian society.”

We are conscious that education plays a pivotal role in spreading social development, stability, integration and equity in a culturally and linguistically diverse civilization. This book sensitizes readers, the thrust, for the interrelationship between home and school language and necessarily the differential performance it generates. A priceless contribution to the world to recognize and accept bi/multi-linguality as nature’s gift for humanity to nurture!

THIS IS ONLY A BRIEF SUMMARY. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Diasporic Experience: A Gateway to Liberation in the Novels of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | The Language of Rhythm Instruments: A Preliminary Study With Reference to "Mridangam" | A Study of Echolalia in Malayalam Speaking Autistic Children | Complexity of Tamil in POS Tagging | Vowel Reduction and Elision in Igbo Data | A Review of IMAGINING MULTILINGUAL SCHOOLS - LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION AND GLOCALIZATION | Equal Access and English Language Learning | HOME PAGE OF JANUARY 2007 ISSUE | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR